A note on the Amazon ads: I've chosen to display current events titles in the Amazon box. Unfortunately, Amazon appears to promote a disproportionate number of angry-left books. I have no power over it at this time. Rest assured, I'm still a conservative.

Friday, October 28, 2005

Liberal tolerance: Yeah, I know it's an oxymoron, but check out this article in today's Wall Street Journal on religious schools' difficulties at getting the University of California system's blessing on their courses. At issue -- among many things -- is the textbooks used in these courses.

The physics textbook is like any other--with pure science in it--except that a verse from Scripture stands at the head of each chapter. Barbara Sawrey, a chemistry professor at the San Diego campus, who advised the university on this matter, told Burt Carney, the school association's legal-affairs director, that the verse appearances alone were enough to disqualify the textbook.

By this silly standard, I alone would've been responsible getting Cal Poly's Mustang Daily axed as a valid class. I actually got a news article published on the front page of the paper that started out with a Bible verse.

I never knew how corrupting just a little religion could be.

Seriously, read the entire article and see if you think that the University of California is acting on anything less than hostility to religion.

Matt, sorry about the anonymous a-holes above. I disagree with you and with the WSJ's perspective on this, but that does not mean either of you are idiots.

Here are the minimum requirements to enter a UC school These requirements are rigorous, exacting and meant to separate those who are prepared to enter the UC system from those who are not. Among those requirements are 2 years of laboratory science. The science part of that is non-negotiable. If you haven't completed these requirements, you don't get in, and one of the hundreds of other students competing for the spot does get in. These requirements are published and sent to every accredited high school school in California, and any other high school that requests them.

This is not discrimination against religious schools. It is requiring the same academic rigor from these schools as from secular schools. I hope that these schools graduate students who can go on to the UC system. Everyone benefits from a broad diverse student body.